ROME, MAY 17, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Bob and Mary Schindler, parents of Terri Schiavo — the American woman whose death was induced by depriving her of food and water — visited the Vatican to say thank you.
Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace council, received the two today, who thanked the cardinal for mobilizing forces in an attempt to save their daughter’s life, «practically condemned to death by United States courts at the request of the woman’s husband, Michael Schiavo,» explained a press statement published by the council.
The cardinal expressed «his sympathy for the woman’s murder by one of the most inhuman and cruel forms, hunger and thirst,» said the statement.
Also present were promoters of the newly created association «Missionaries of the Gospel of Life,» founded by Father Frank Pavone, who traveled to Rome to present the statutes of the association to the Holy See.
«The cardinal encouraged the initiatives of the new association in defense of human life, from conception until natural death,» added the note.
«In this connection, the cardinal recalled the recent and firm affirmation of Benedict XVI, on the occasion of taking possession of the chair of St. John Lateran, when he emphasized that ‘the freedom to kill is not an authentic freedom, but a tyranny that leads man to slavery,'» it continued.
«Obviously, this does not only affect abortion and euthanasia, but also the death penalty, war, terrorism, the destruction and manipulation of embryos, extermination by hunger or devastation of the natural environment,» said Cardinal Martino.
Terri Schiavo’s parents will attend Pope Benedict XVI’s general audience on Wednesday.
